Let Her Go
by Sick Twisted Broken Soul
Summary: To protect Regina from the townspeople Emma let her and Henry pass the line. Knowing that only three people from the town could pass without their memories being erased. She wanted, more than anything to go with them. But she couldn't. She couldn't leave these people behind, she had to protect the woman she loved, even if it meant staying behind.


**A/N: Thank you for stopping in, and I hope you like.**

Winter had come. Snowflakes drifted slowly to the ground, spreading it's white and fluffy nature across the pavement. Emma stared out the window of her apartment. Leaning with one arm above it. Her eyes cold, lifeless. She brought the bottle to her lips once more. Watching, drinking. As she did most nights.

Below her people danced. Lights lined the streets, no cars to be seen. The people wore smiles. They were full of love, happiness. Life. Three simple things that Emma Swan just didn't have anymore. Not since the day that she had watched Regina and Henry leave.

Drowning. That was all she did. Asphyxiating on the mass amount of alcohol that never seemed to be given enough time to leave her system. Once more she brought the near-empty bottle to her lips as her eyes scanned the crowd below her.

Finally she was able to wrench her eyes from the scene and she stumbled her way to her couch, rather than sit she attempted to drink and fall into it at the same time. A loud thump was heard as her body hit the hard cushions.

Whiskey trained down her thumb from the impact. Instead of simply wiping the small amount of the substance on her boxers she chose to lick it off. She was unwilling to waste even a single drop of the precious liquid that had come to travel through her veins like blood.

Jack Daniels was her poison of choice. It's amber liquid was to her what blood was to vampires, what insulin was to diabetics. Without it, she would surely die. Without it, there was nothing to live for. If she was doing could be considered living anyway.

Mere minutes had passed after Regina had crossed the townline when Emma found herself inside of the liquor store buying that first bottle. A mere hour later she was alone, the bottle was gone, and her face was covered in tears. The image of Regina's car going out of sight imprinted upon her memory.

Old no. 7. She had yet to put down the bottle. Jack was her only friend, and she made sure she had a large supply. Emma had no reason to put down the bottle. No reason to live anymore. She had let the only woman, the only person, she had ever loved get away.

Protection. That was why she had helped it to happen. To protect Regina she had made her leave. Emma had been forced to sacrifice any chance she could have with the former mayor. As she had watched the mercedes disappear, out of her sight, Emma would swear that she felt her very heart stop beating.

Be that as it may, the so called Savior could not regret her decision to protect her beloved. Regina was safe, Henry was with his true mother. In the end, that was what mattered. While she couldn't even glance upon, or hear her love's voice anymore, she knew, in the deepest parts of what left of her soul that Regina was better off away from those who meant her harm.

Rancor, loathing, contempt, and just general anger swirled in Emma's innards day after day. Sorrow bit at her like a rattlesnake upon a rat on a hot summer day. Her hatred, her loathing, her anger. It was all aimed at herself, at her life. Had she been stronger, she could have protected her love. Alas. She wasn't strong enough.

Months had bled together like the minutes on the clock. So well did they blend that Emma knew not the month, or day. She was sheriff in name only. As of recently she had only left her crappy little apartment when she was running out of alcohol, and she bought in bulk.

The station had not been graced with her presence since the fifth week after it's former mayors departure. She's simply hadn't been able to force herself to pretend to care anymore. That was also about the time that she started drinking from the moment she woke up, until she fell asleep. She was swimming in a bottom of a bottle, and that was all she could muster any energy for.

"Get up!" Snow White hissed as she found her daughter, once again, drunk on her couch. She shook her grown child, pulling Emma from her innermost thoughts. Emma's droopy green eyes bore into her mothers brown ones. "Henry, your son, got here an hour ago! Your father and I are not bring him over until you are sober. And you clean up a bit"

Swiftly confusion settled into Emma's mind. Her brow crinkled, her nose scrunched. And she cocked her head slightly to the left. Her son was not meant to be there until the end of January. It simply could not have been six months already. Could it? She tried thinking about it, but the answer had yet to it. The seriousness had yet to slam into her.

The serious expression on Snow's face told her that, it was indeed January, and her son was most certainly with David. It was like a semi-truck hitting her. Somehow Emma had completely missed the last part of October, the entirety of December, and most of January.

Loss of time his not concern Emma in the slightest. What annoyed Emma was the fact that she had forget to remember to tell Snow not to have Henry come. Because, what did it matter to see her son? A son who would only serve as a reminder of his other mother? The woman the drunken sheriff had lost?

"Send him back, he doesn't belong here. He doesn't belong with me. Tell him to inform his mother that I don't ever want him to set foot into this forsaken, fucked up, shithole of a town again. Ever. And if I find that you did not return him I will put you in jail" Despite the fact she was drunker than what should be humanly possible her words came out firm, determined. Both surprising, and scaring, her mother.

Considering she had said her peace the blonde simply laid back down, and rolled over. Ending the conversation. She could still feel her mother's shocked presence leering over her for several minutes. Causing Emma to sigh, bring the bottle to her lips once again, take several deep swallows before pulling a blanket all the way over her head. The click of her front door brought a groan of pain to her head as the sound reverberated against her skill. Knowing her mother was finally gone allowed the drunk sheriff the peace to close her eyes, and allow the darkness to overtake her.

"I simply don't get it." Groaned Snow at the diner, Ruby glanced up at her friend. Sighing. "Henry called that woman, and she will have a car to pick him up at three tomorrow. I just. Don't want to let him go, he doesn't belong with her. But Emma would blow a huge gasket"

"Snow. I know this is hard for you. But Emma doesn't miss Henry. Sure. She loved the kid, but, he's Regina's boy. At best Emma's a week in the summer type of dad. And you know that. I won't give you the answers, because you need to realize the truth for yourself. Because until you can realize, and accept the truth, Emma won't get any better." Ruby, annoyed with what was once her best friend, got up. And left Snow sitting there, confused beyond belief.

Alas, Snow never did figure out what her friend meant. Perhaps it was because she simply refused to allow herself to become privy to the truth. So instead, she watched, in pure agony as her only child fell deeper and deeper to the bottle that had become the blonde's King. Her only salvation.

Force to observe as the town fell to chaos under her self-induced mayoral rule. The daughter of the White kingdom didn't know how to run this world, and she was failing. To the point where she was unsure how long it would be until people started shooting each other in broad daylight, on the streets of the city.

Than a week into the summer Snow received a call. A devastating call from her husband, who was panicking and crying. Emma had been found in a coma, and he had whisked her to the hospital. Snow had assured him that she would be there as soon as she could.

When she finally arrived, two hours later, Whale informed them that Emma had finally drank herself to the brink of death. Telling them that there was nothing that he could do, that he was surprised that she had survived so long considering the extent of her condition. And, with a heavy sigh, he ended their conversation by telling the Saviors parents that the possibility of her waking up was basically nonexistent, that he was most certain that Emma was dying.

Loathing didn't began to scratch the surface of the hatred that Snow held for her once stepmother. However she knew that Henry needed to at least say goodbye to, in her opinion, his true mother. So she flipped open her phone, and she dialed Henry's cell phone number to inform him of what had transpired.

It took less than twenty-four hours before both Regina and Henry were at the hospital. Sitting next to Emma. Henry crying his eyes out, kissing his mother's forehead, begging her to wake up. When Regina looked up to see Snow entering the room she stood, and forced the woman out. Closing the door behind her.

"How could you possibly let this happen Snow!?" Seethed Regina. Appearing every bit the evil queen she once was. She was trying to keep her calm, but it was hard knowing that Henry was crying his eyes out at Emma's side in the next room.

The two stared at each other. Both woman crossed their arms. Anger apparent on both their faces. Regina raised an eyebrow, fully expecting Snow White to explain her idiot self. Explain how she could watch as the Savior killed herself. What scared Regina was she didn't see grief. When she herself knew her own grief was running rampant within her system, she could only hope that Snow didn't see that on her face.

"You took Henry, HER son away from her her! That's why she couldn't stay off the bottle. If you had cared about him, what's best for him, you would have left him here in the first place!" Snow said when she found her voice.

Regina's mouth dropped, her eyes narrowed and her arms dropped to her sides. She took three steps towards Snow. So that there faces were mere inches apart from each other. Before she could rip Snow a new asshole, among other holes, Ruby was stepping between them. Physically pushing the two women apart.

"Fuck. BOTH OF YOU. Shut up!" Ruby yelled at them. Sending both of them a glare. Settling it on Snow's face. "Emma wasn't heartbroken about losing Henry you retard. Jesus. Snow. If anyone is at fault about this it is you. Not Regina. You. You are to blind to the truth, to blind to see why she allowed her heart, her soul, to shatter into a billion pieces. If you ever got the fucking stick out of your fucking ass than she wouldn't be dying"

Both Queens were quiet, there mouths slightly hanging open as they blinked at Ruby. For separate reasons. Regina had never thought Ruby would stick up for her, especially against Snow. And Snow was too dumbfounded that her friend had said such atrocities that were aimed at her. After several long minutes of silence Ruby removed her hands from the two woman, wiped her tear filled eyes and walked into Emma's hospital Room.

The daughter of the White realm stood in the doorway to her own child's hospital room. She was dumbfounded to see none other than Regina, her arch nemesis, crying as she clutched for dear life to Emma's hand. Looking as if death himself had come and taken her, held her over hell until she was about half-cooked, and returned her. A surprising sight indeed.

"Emma" Breathed Regina. Her voice barely above a whisper. "I am so sorry. I wish. I wish I had the strength I needed. What happened, Zeus, It wasn't nothing. It was everything to me. But the curse had yet to break. I couldn't allow it, and you deserved. Deserve so much more than I could possible give you. I could, can, give you nowhere near what you deserve"

Listening to your sworn enemy speak such words to your grown daughter. Now that was an experience. And not a good one. So Snow stood there. Stunned into silence, wondering just what Regina was talking about. So she continued to stand there, cloaked by the darkness.

"The way you looked at me when I wrapped my arms around him, I felt so safe. Since that moment I knew, I knew you would destroy me. Love as always been my weakness, and I love you. More than any other. How I wish that the world had not been against us. How I wish, the day I admitted my love, that you hadn't told you didn't love me. My heart broke as I drove away. Henry didn't understand why I was crying so badly, but that was okay. I knew you had lied, but it still hurt. I know why you did it Emma. And I will keep your secret. I won't let Henry forget what you, or what you have done for us" Regina said. Her tears dripping onto the hospital bed.

Fists clenched, teeth molded together. Snow's entire body was shaking, a battle to hear what else the Evil Queen had to say, and to rip her into tiny shards of a human being. Snow imagined the two together. The Savior and the Evil Queen. That couldn't happen! That wasn't possible, and she would never allow such an atrocity.

"I have a secret. One, one that I fear you could not forgive. One that I can not let you die without knowing. Even if you might not be able to hear it. That night, the night before I left. When we made love until dawn broke. I became pregnant. I don't know how, or why. But. You left me a precious gift. We have a second son Emma. His name is Emmett. Zeus. Emma. He's blonde, and beautiful. And I wish, I wish that you could have seen him. At least once" And then Regina broke down into body-wrenching sobs.

At first Snow couldn't move, couldn't breathe in fact. Then she was walking, and then she was running. Faster than she had ever run in her long life. She jumped into her car, and she stomped her foot onto the gas pedal as she steered the vehicle towards Grannies inn. Breaking every speed limit from Maine to Paraguay as she gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles were a play on her name; white as snow. Her jeep sputtered and groaned, but she didn't slow down once, not until she was slamming the breaks right in front of the small cottage looking inn.

Her heart had not taken a single beat since she had taken off running like a bat out of hell itself. She jumped out of the jeep, and forced the front door to grannies open. Racing up the steps, pushing her body well past its limits. And then she opened the door to Henry and Regina's room. The one with an apple on the door, Regina was predictable after all.

What she saw before her broke her into a thousand pieces. Sure enough, sleeping soundly on the bed next to his much older brother was a baby. The baby was surrounded by pillows on three sides, with Henry being the fourth. The eleven year old's hand placed lightly on the baby's stomach. Protecting his precious little brother even as they both were in a deep sleep.  
Babies. Snow knew babies like the back of her hand, she had worked in the daycare and the school for twenty-eight years after all. The baby, with blonde curly hair, was no more than six weeks old. The way his little hands were up in the air, clenched in fists and his mouth was parted just slightly. He was like a mini Emma. The dates added up, and Snow clutched her chest as she fell to her knees.

Magic was not Mary Margaret's forte. However. There was one bit of magic she knew about, and she'd only knew that because her mother had told her when she was very young. And when she'd inquired to Gold about it he had confirmed the story.

The story that, the only way two woman can conceive a child together is with the truest, the purest of love. One woman, for this to happen, would have to be a child of true love herself. A second generation so to speak. And even first generation true love children were rare enough in itself, only appearing every thousand years or so. Second generation finding true love were little more than a myth. And that was when the truth slammed into her like a semi-truck to the face, to the heart, down to Snow White's very soul.

Her own hatred, her need for revenge was what had pushed Emma to send Regina away. What pushed her daughter to let her true love go. Which, in turn, had set her on the path to drink herself to a slow, and hazy grave. The separation of true loves was always fatal. And as Snow stared at the scene splayed before her she knew that only reason Regina had survived was the child she had carried within her, and the child she had chosen to raise as her very own.

This wasn't the way Snow wanted the world to be, this was far, far from it. And now Snow had a decision to make. She had to decide whether which world was worse. A world where the woman she hated to the deepest depths of her soul was together with her daughter. Or a world where her daughter did not exist. Would she tell Regina how to save her beloved? Tell Regina the truth of Emmett's conception? Or would she allow her daughter to die without the stain of anyone knowing the truth like Snow, unfortunately, now did.

Slowly the woman stood up on shaky legs. She closed the door, and she walked down the stairs, and climbed into her car. She placed her head against the steering wheel and waited for the answer to come to her. Once more the truth crashed into Snow. And it scared her, it chilled her to the very core. But her mind was made up, and she would do what she felt was right.

**A/N: Yes. You probably hate me. So. What do you think Snow's gonna do? Should I leave it here? Should I continue. Cuz I think I kinda like it like this. But I'm not sure yet.**


End file.
